20 September 2005

The reasons for our continued occupation change as fast as the old ones are proven lies.--Cindy Sheehan

аааа

аааа Below please find a list of justifications for the US presence in Iraq along with rebuttals. I just want to keep a record of the stream of justifications generated and wonder about it. The majority of Iraqis want us out of there, according to a recent poll. Maybe the most valid rebuttal is that any event that requires so many justifications and raises as many questions is really indefensible. That is at the level of logic, though, a form of structuring thought that the present administration tries to draw on more often than accepting it. Note how shocked Jon Stewart was when Mr. Bush took blame for the Katrina fiasco "to the extent that the federal government is responsible." We all were shocked. I wrote a few years ago that becoming president for Bush is an awfully expensive way for the U.S. to help Bush Sr. raise his son into adulthood. But back to the reasons for the Iraq invasion:

1. WMDааааа no

2. Saddam in cahoots with al Qaedaаа no

3. To get rid of Saddam Husseinа accomplished but worth it?

4. To bring democracy and freedom to "those people"а do they want it?

5. "Those others cannot have died in vain" kill more people then?

6. So we don't have to fight them over hereааа but the insurgency is over there for a reason

7. There will be a civil war if we leave thereаа there already is one

7A. If the United States left Iraq now, it could turn into a haven for terrorists. It already is

8. (related to #7) The U.S.-trained Iraqi troops aren't yet ready to protect the country by themselves there are only 3,000 of them the last I heard and the insurgency keeps killing them off and they are infiltrated by Saddam loyalists anyway

9. (related to #7) To protect Iraq from other countriesаааа 2 percent of the insurgency are from other countries. Who's going to protect Iraq from the U.S.? [Oh God, that I have to write that. It hurts like hell. I was raised on the assumption that we are the good guys. I know it's not true but I hate being reminded. Notice how I keep editing this "study sheet." I now write this on 9/23.]

10. (announced under the camouflage of Katrina so no one would notice) To protect the vast oil fields of Iraqааааа now that's honest but they want to more than protect them; note how the oil ministry was the only protected building in Baghdad during Shock and Awe

11. [added 9/22/05] A new reason (given by Bush): Leaving Iraq would allow the insurgency to "claim an historic victory over the United States." I thought the US had already declard victory and/or would do so when we left, "with honor" as was the case with Vietnam.

12. [added 9/22/05] Yet another new reason (given by Bush): "to leave Iraq now would be to repeat the costly mistakes of the past that led to the attacks of September the 11th, 2001." (cf. reasons #6 and 7A above) thanks to the stingy, op-ed subtracting New York Times for the last two quotations. Stay tuned. He's right (according to the same article)--we [his opposition] do mean well. Clearly he doesn't, having generated two new reasons to stay there within the last 24 hours.

13. [also added 10/3/05] Irene Goldman of CFPA, at the rally last Saturday, reminded us of Condi's warning that the U.S. must invade Iraq to avoid "the mushroom cloud in our future."

14. [added 10/4/05] "If we quit now, we will abandon Iraq's democrats at their time of greatest need." (Condi Rice, address sponsored by Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, 9/30/05)

15. [added 10/6/05] "The fight against them [the insurgency] is not to be underestimated and can be compared to the lengthy previous battles against ideologies such as communism" (Scott McClellan in NYTimes 10/6/05).

16. [added 10/6/05] Bush: "The United States must remain in Iraq until that country has gained enough stability to function on its own without posing a threat to the United States and its allies." Why did the U.S. bomb Iraq in the first place? (for answers, return to the top of the list)

17. [added 10/6/05] Bush: The terrorists "aim not only to drive the United States out of the Middle East but to build 'a totalitarian empire' reaching from Spain to Indonesia." Peanuts compared to the empire he hopes to build

18. [added 10/30/05](from today's New York Times): Prevailing in Iraq is essential to defending the nation from the broader threat of radical Islam.

19. [added 12/2/05](from Bush's speech 11/30/05): U.S. troops etc. in Iraq want "freedom" in Iraq (a recent poll measured that a majority of the troops want the U.S. out of Iraq).

20. [added 12/2/05](from Bush's speech 11/30/05): We need another democratic ally in Iraq. This is hardly the way to make friends when the number of normal, noninsurgent Iraqis who hate the U.S. is growing daily.

21. [added 12/21/05](from Bush's speech 12/18/05): We would abandon our Iraqi friends -- and signal to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its word. How many times have we been lied to by "America"? How many times have we been lied to? How many times? How many? and finally "How" can we stop the lies?

22. [added 2/17/06]: From When News Lies, p. 61: "The argument became that, although apparently Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction, he would have had them sooner or later."At this rate, what municipality won't? I suggest they bury them way, way down deep, as they have in Iran, farther than bunker busters can go. Just kidding.

23. [23 March 2006] Saddam Hussein blocked the work of United Nations weapons inspectors in 2003. As I recall, it was Bush who obstructed the UN weapons inspection program.